It
could have started with my boyhood admiration of John F. Kennedy who
went to Berlin after The Wall went up. "Ich bin ein Berliner."
Or, a copy of National Geographic magazine, with pictures of the divided
city that I saved for years. Or much later, the films of Wim Wenders.
Particularly, Kings of the Road (Im Lauf der Zeit), in which two disaffected
men travel along the East/West border. "The Yanks have colonized
our subconscious," one of them says in the film. Whatever it
was, I wanted to move beyond New York City as my primary subject,
and do something that dealt with the larger issues of the day. After
a number of months of research, I flew to Germany, rented a car, and
began the project.

Dankmarshausen,
East/West German border, 1987

Along
most of the border one sees double fences made of steel mesh with
sharp edges. But next to cities and built-up areas the fences give
way to the same concrete wall that is used in Berlin, presumably
to provide more security. The fence creates an odd optical effect--head
on, one can see through it relatively easily, but to the side, it
appears nearly opaque. The fences and walls are always set back
from the actual borderline, which is marked by posts and signs.
Sometimes the border is most obviously demarcated by the fact that
the grass is mowed on one side, but not on the other.

Heinersdorf,
East/West German Border, 1987

East/West
German Border. 1987

There
are three kinds of guard towers. One is pod-like with its head sitting
on a cylindrical base. This design keeps reminding me of a very
sinister E.T. The other towers are rectangular; the larger of the
two serve as command posts. When I am around with my camera, binoculars
are almost always sticking out the windows in my direction.

East/West
German Border, 1987

Mödlareuth,
East/West German Border, 1987

Offleben,
East/West German Border, 1987

Vacha,
East/West German Border, 1985

The
border follows the Werra River and then crosses it by way of a centuries
old stone bridge. The border then continues on the other side of
the river. The bridge once linked Philippsthal to Vacha, the latter
now in the GDR. The field next the bridge on the western side was
being mowed—kids played in the street nearby—some tourist
walked about. I took my pictures and the guards watched from their
towers.

Neustadt,
East/West German Border, 1985

Blankenstein,
East/West German Border, 1985

Winnigstedt,
East/West German Border, 1987

I
continue to encounter various western military patrols--the British
in the north and Americans in the south--but most often I see the
Bundesgrenzschutz, the West German border guards. They appear primarily
involved in a watching game with their counterparts across the border.
At one border overlook I watched a couple of East German guards
busying themselves at the base of a watchtower. Suddenly, they made
a beeline for a gate in the fence, entered the no man's land and
stood just a few feet across the border from me. One of them began
taking pictures, the other turned his back as I set up my camera
and photographed them.

Travemünde,
East West German Border, 1987

In
Priwall, the northernmost point of the border, the fences meet the
Baltic Sea. The usual red and white markers, placed by the West German
border police, are supplemented here by barriers and chains that descend
right across the beach into the surf--presumably to discourage wayward
beachcombers and swimmers. In the distance Icould see the GDR fence
turn the corner and follow the beach for an indeterminate distance.
Though the morning had started sunny, clouds had now moved in with
patches of weak sunshine breaking through. The Baltic surf had frozen
into a six foot high ridge of impacted ice chunks.